Explanation of this Python language feature? [x for x in x for x in x] (to flatten a nested list)

[Mark H Harris]

On 3/31/14 3:46 PM, Rhodri James wrote:
>>    I was using arpanet since the late 1970s.
>
> I was using JANet since the early 80s, and I'm by no means the oldest
> person here.  I should stop playing that card if I were you.

    My point (which you missed) is not how old I am, rather, for some of 
us 1991 is NOT ancient history. Also, that some people have a rather 
unusual "memory" of history that, surprising to those of us who were 
living then, does not match up.
    My experience in the mid-to-late 1970s was on an IBM 360 mod44 
mainframe (high-speed number cruncher)(at the time only 11 of them 
existed in the world). We were connected on the net (at a time when most 
people didn't know there was a net). Its not a 'card' its just a fact. 
We used our machine to analyze electrocardiograms. (it was the first in 
the world to do that, Upsher Laboratories, K.C. MO USA).
    Its not a snotty holier than thou thing, its just an experience and 
accomplishment thing (if you don't value the testimony, well, plonk).

>>>>  I didn't really start using unicode
>>>> until about 5 years ago; python has only really used it since python3.
>>>> right?
>>>  No. Python 2.2 introduced Unicode.
>>  I didn't ask when it was introduced, I asked when it became useful?

> No you didn't.

    Yes, I did. Our common English is apparently getting in the way. 
Well, I speak American English, and you don't, apparently; U.K.?
    Python3 finally started getting unicode right. The fact that it 
'existed' in some form prior to (3) is not meaningful, nor helpful.
When I said, "python has only really used it since python3, right?," I 
meant that unicode in python2 was a mess (and incomplete, and I could go 
on) but finally---in python3---it is becoming useful (even though it 
still has glitches). I don't know why we need to argue about it.
    I do regret that you misinterpreted my meaning. That is always 
frustrating, for me.

> *plonk*

    You choice.  I never *plonk* anyone. Even the dull and ignorant have 
their story. YMMV---  plonk away, God save the Queen.